Snippets of a Spiders Non-Spidey Life

Textbooks are Expesive and I'm Running Out of Coffee (Part 4)

Just like Peter had predicted, the pizza place was open; their pizza ovens not requiring electricity. The pair decided to take a seat inside the fairly vacant restaurant, not wanting to order it as take out only for it to get stone cold in an instant from being outside.

They ordered two pizzas to share, I mean if you're going to order two you might as well try them both. The little table they had to themselves sat two and was right next to one of large windows, looking out onto the quiet street. The calm and quite laid back ambience of the place was ideal for Peter and MJ. Thanks to the power outage, nobody seemed to be on their phones and people were actually talking to one another, a small miracle in this day and age.

'So the small issue with the textbook...' Peter started, after finishing his second mouthful of pizza.

'Yeah, that small issue. There's no way I can afford it. Does college even realise how tight a student's budget is?'

'Honestly, I don't think so. I can probably just afford to pay for half of it, you know?'

'Same here. It's ridiculous; we already pay so much to go to college why should we have to cash out so much extra just to get a book we need to pass the class.' Michelle leaned her head against the table in annoyance, being careful not to put her head on or get her hair in the remaining pizza.

Peter opened his mouth, as though he was going to say something, before closing it.

He opened it again.

And closed it again.

He took a deep breath.

'We could like share custody.' He finally said, looking down at the table

'What do you mean?' Michelle picked her head up off the table slightly and looked curiously at Peter.

'Well we could like split the cost so we only pay half each and then just share it or study together with it. I mean if you wanted to. We don't have to; it was just a suggestion...' Peter began to ramble.

'Ok.' MJ said, causing Peter's jumble of words flowing out of his mouth to halt.

'Wait. You're actually agreeing to my idea?'

'Yes but it's a onetime thing, Loser. It's the only option we have and I need to pass this class.' She said with a hint of fondness in her voice and a slight upturn of the corners of her mouth.

'I can now, officially, say that not all my ideas are idiotic when you complain about them again.' Peter said with a wide smile stretching over his face.

'One out of many but I suppose that it's still quite an achievement for you.' She joked, reaching in for another slice of pizza. 'Oh and by the way, we are not referring to it as shared custody.'

'Fine. But for the record, I think it's a great term for it.'

'You keep thinking that.' MJ retorted.

Peter reached in to take a slice of pizza.

Their hands brushed slightly, freezing them both while causing a surge of heat to rise to their cheeks. Quickly retracting their hands, still holding onto their slices of pizza (thankfully different ones), they looked down slightly, avoiding each other's eyes.

An influx of people had crowded the pizza place, creating an almost unbearable atmosphere filled with a cacophony of chatter. Leaving behind a small tip, the teens made an escape out the door into the cool, quiet night-time air. Apparently the chatter between the two had lasted a lot longer than either of them had anticipated and instead of it still being late afternoon/early evening it was much later.